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Bio and Press release

For brief descriptions and quotes, click here. There's is another wonderful review at yoni.com.

Penelope Swales - Bio

Singer and songwriter Penelope Swales, described by Sydney's Drum Media Magazine as "The most authentic voice to come out of Australia in the last 15 years,” combines wry and often outrageous humour with her deep passion for people and issues. Her spoken word material swings from anecdotes bordering on stand-up comedy to an astute presentation of deeply challenging and thought-provoking ideas. She pokes sly fun at our failings while celebrating with insight and compassion our attempts to build a better world and our capacity for love, courage and sensuality.

Swales toured constantly throughout Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Britain and the US for the early nineties to the mid-noughties, when the need to care for an elderly parent brought her home to the Dandenongs in Melbourne. She now divides her time between caring for her mother (a job she shares with her brother), full-time study and select touring commitments and festivals. She plans in future to combine music with working in Native Title and activist Law.

Much of Swales’ writing reflects her twin passions of social justice and passionate life. Her latest album “Skin: Deep” (2007) explores the uncharted territory of human relationships and the dark underbelly of our desires. Written as an antidote to the drier aspects of academia, she describes it as “polymorphous love songs” – polymorphous meaning many changing shapes. Stripped back to soaring, evocative vocal and powerful and intricate guitar, the production is as bare as the subject matter, giving a sense of nakedness and utter honesty. Her 2003 studio album "Monkey Comfort" was number 6 on the Australian Independent Blues and Roots charts for two months and garnered numerous 4-star reviews. In 2005 at the behest of fans she released "Archive Vol 2: Songs from the Borderline" which showcases the best of 3 early releases that had been unavailable for over a decade.

In concert and in the studio, Swales blends the best of old and new. Not only does she sing a cappella and with guitar, but by applying a footswitched on-the-spot sampler to both vocals and guitar she builds live, hypnotic soundscapes over which she delivers a shatteringly incisive commentary. Acoustic Trance might best describe this. 

Highlights of Swales’ career include a headline the New York's Estfest Women's Music Festival in 2004 and a standing ovation for her formal showcase at the North East Regional Folk Alliance in New York State. Her favourite event of recent years was giving workshops at the MiDi School of Music in Beijing. She was also described as the pick of the 2000 Port Fairy Folk Festival by Melbourne's Inpress Magazine.

She is increasingly being sought not only as a musician but also as a public speaker, appearing in events like the Woodford Folk Festival Great Green Debate. Her next engagement will be “A Conversation with the Archbishop” at Federation Square in Melbourne on the 27th June to discuss environmental issues

She is also know for her work as singer, guitarist and instrument maker for Cabaret-Style Festival band Totally Gourdgeous

For further information email:
penelope@penelopeswales.com
 ph/fx +61 3 5968 1625

 



For further information email:
penelope@penelopeswales.com
 ph/fx +61 3 5968 1625

US Management: Leo Music 
julia_reinhart@yahoo.com
 

DISCOGRAPHY      

- Between Light And Dark (1993)                                    
- Returning on Foot (1995)
- Homemade Wine (1997)
- Live At Woodford  (1998)
- Justifying Your Longings to the Doctor (1998)
- “Archive” demo's out-takes and one-offs 1995-2000
- Monkey Comfort (2003)
- "Archive Vol 2: Songs from the Borderline

 

 

 

 

Press Release

Penelope Swales Presents New Double CD
“Monkey Comfort”

 


Melbourne Singer/Songwriter Penelope Swales will tour extensively in 2004 to promote her new Double CD “Monkey Comfort.” Best described as a musical journalist, she constantly travels Australia and the world. She combines wry and often outrageous humour with her deep passion for people and issues. Amazingly prolific, this is her 7th solo release in 10 years.

The fruit of 5 years of writing, travelling and informal study, “Monkey Comfort” is a playful combination of anthropology and anthropomorphism that draws on the lush imagery of the natural world to describe the human condition. 

Swales draws parallels between modern human society and naturally occurring ecosystems, pointing out the predators, scavengers, parasites, grazing herds in our midst even large companies are described as Leviathan creatures: “You and I are the plankton that the multinationals graze upon. You and I at the bottom, Bill Gates at the top.” 

Friends and lovers emerge as their animal alter egos, or perhaps as strange plants. The personal journey is expressed as travelling through - or even being - a landscape. Woven through the songs is the idea that we are animals, warm, intelligent, boisterous, sophisticated animals, and that we will never understand ourselves or change the things we need to change about ourselves until we come to realise this.

In concert and in the studio, Swales has re-invented the time-honoured singer-guitarist format. Not only does she sing acappella and with guitar, but by applying a footswitched on-the-spot sampler to both vocals and guitar she builds live, hypnotic soundscapes over which she delivers a shatteringly incisive commentary. Acoustic Trance might best describe this. She recorded “Monkey Comfort” as close to live as the studio could take her, even taking a PA in and miking it for added warmth. The album features some very cool Beatbox/mouth percussion by Mal Webb and irresistible double-bass grooves by Amphibian's Barry Hill.


Swales is also known for her role as instrument maker, guitarist and vocalist with Caberet-style folk band Totally Gourdgeous.

 

 

Tour dates (US)

August 18 Back Porch Levittown PA 

August 27 Minstrell Coffeehouse Morris Township NJ 

August 28 Aire Coffeehouse Forksville PA 

September 2 Eclectic Etceteras Edinboro PA 7:30 

September 3 Seattle Coffeehouse Wooster OH 

September 6 Cantab Lounge Cambridge MA 

September 8 House Concert Franklin MA 

September 11 Sanctuary Concerts Berkeley Heights NJ 

September 22 Vic's Music Corner Series Rockville MD 

September 23 Coffee & Tea Room Williamsport PA 


More tour dates to be announced. For further information call ph/fx 03 5968 162, 0411 555 348
www.penelopeswales.com
penelope@penelopeswales.com